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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-01 Parks Board Minutes RIVERSIDE PARKS BOARD MEETING MINUTES November 1, 2018 6:00 p.m. The Riverside Parks Board held their regularly scheduled meeting at Riverside City Hall, 2950 NW Vivion Road, Riverside Missouri 64150. Those in attendance were: Noel Challis, Deana Winter, Elaine Warren, Cathy Kline, Bill Bray. Call to Order The Parks Board Meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM by Deana Winter. Approval of Minutes Minutes from the Oct. 4 th meeting were unanimously approved. Elaine motioned. Cathy second. Girl Scout Troop 1840 The Girl Scouts are from Park Hill and North Kansas City School Districts. Seven Presentation girls came to present. Three were unable to make it. Three projects were presented: Group A: GaGa Ball Pit Great way to make friends and have a lot of fun. A nice amenity for the community. The GaGa ball pit is an octagon structure with 8’ long walls, 30” high, with a diameter of 20’. They expect the overall space required to be 25’ x 25’ GaGa is a very fun game. It is like dodgeball, but the goal is to only hit with the ball from the knees and below. Anything above the knees doesn’t count as an out. We talked about the pros and cons of a concrete or hard surface vs. grass / dirt surface. Concrete is easier to maintain. Perhaps more scraped knees with a concrete surface. With grass it will be harder to maintain, more likely to have times when it is too muddy to play. When dry the grass may not survive and become a dirt pit. Noel will look into other surfacing options like tiles or soft surfacing. They are expecting the total cost to be about $800 without the surfacing. They think they can provide this much for the project and if fundraising goes well, maybe more. The desired location was discussed. The girl scouts don’t have a set location in mind. When the troop leader talked to the Mayor, the Mayor recommended E.H. Young. Confluence has been including a space for it in their park design. It was asked how the balls are maintained. The girls said that players are expected to bring their own. It was suggested that an instructional sign with directions to the game should be included. The Scouts said they could provide this sign. They are planning to invite younger troops to come learn how to play the game. Group B: Buddy Benches Provide a sitting place for parents and children. Design and build the benches. Would like the colors to reflect the colors of the GaGa ball pit. 5’ long benches, 17” tall, 15” depth, with a 29” high back. Constructed out of 2 x 4s. Would like to place a plaque on the back recognizing the donation by the Girl Scout troop. It was asked if the benches would be painted or stained. The Park Board prefers a stained bench for long-term maintenance. The Scouts would like to know how many benches we would like. Group C: Monarch Waystations Butterfly migration from Canada to Mexico. The waystations provide a place for butterflies to stop and rest and get the nourishment they need for their journey. We have a lot of waystations in Missouri, but none in Riverside. We discussed how this project could pair nicely with the Monarch Migration Walk project. We just issued the Call for Art. There will be art installations along the Line Creek Trail. We would love to pair some of this art with Monarch butterfly habitat. Part of the effort with the community art will be continuing education and additions to these areas. The Girl Scouts said that the butterfly houses will protect the butterflies from birds and other predators. The girls have studied the types of plants that are good for the Monarchs. They would like to include a Monarch Waystation sign at each station. The girls would go to the younger troops and educate them about this as well. The waystations would be monitored by the girl scouts. They can catch and release the butterflies and report data about them to the Monarch Waystation group. The timeline for the construction of these projects is flexible. They would like wait on construction until Spring 2019 to give them time for fundraising. If we needed them to wait until Fall 2019 that would work for them as well. The troop could provide funding for the GaGa Ball Bit, Benches and Monarch houses. They asked if Riverside could help provide funds for the Monarch plants. We asked if the troop could help with maintenance of the Monarch garden. They said they could help with some of this until the plants are better established. The Scouts will wait to hear from us on final details and quantities. After the girls left we discussed additional thoughts on their proposed projects. The biggest concern in maintenance. The girls said they could provide some maintenance. However, we probably shouldn’t expect a lot of maintenance since they are volunteers and are involved in so many activities. We thought the benches might be a better fit along the trails. Fitness Court We briefly discussed the Fitness Court Launch Party and Fitness Court usage. There have been some people using it, but likely the temperatures are keeping some people away. The YMCA has been holding classes on the Fitness Court. The class turnout has been sparse, just Noel and one other Riverside employee. The 3:30pm start time might not be ideal for most working people. Monarch Walk - Art Call for Art Plan We quickly reviewed the list of people who have received the Call for Art. Park Board members will also send personal invitations. Noel will send an email after the meeting with the correct link with the final Call for Art. We have placed the Call for Art on publicartist.org and CodaWorx also added it to their site. We didn’t add it to the Café site yet. Deanna will send it to ArtsKC, sculpture professor at the University of Nebraska, Charlotte Street Foundation, the Artists Coalition, and friends who do welding work. Cathy will send it to the instructor at the KCAI. Deanna suggested we should send it to other university art programs. Park Board members were encouraged to share the Riverside Facebook post on their pages. Art Signage A draft idea for the signage associated with each art installation was presented. Each sign could have a consistent theme with a location map along the flyway, a narrative of the butterfly stage in the journey, possibly a city skyline and facts about that city. On the same sign we could include information about the art piece or we could have a plaque dedicated to the artwork and a separate educational plaque. We will also need space for sponsor logo if we receive sponsorships. Calendar We will create a calendar of activities and deadlines for things to happen to make sure we can meet our target dates. Noel will work on this and send it out. Noel will also send an email with possible dates for important meetings like art interviews, etc. EH Young Confluence is working hard on the detail park designs. The engineer working with Confluence is making good progress on the floodplain modeling. The first run of the model shows that we should be able to elevate the playground to help protect it more from flooding. Noel met with a local Pickleball Ambassador who wants to do programming like free lessons, low-cost social evenings, etc. Soon the City is going to start demolition of some components. We will be responsible for this work in advance of the park construction contractor. Next Meeting The next meeting will be held on December 6, 2018. Adjournment Bill made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:01 pm. Cathy seconded the motion. Motion approved.